Fallen Angels, Nephilim, & Giants: A Bible-Based Look at the Hidden History of Earth
The book of Genesis records a historical event that is very misunderstood and ignored by much of the church clergy, because it is so bizarre and hard to comprehend.
This event, combined with the perversion of man, brought the flood in the days of Noah. “Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
…There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men (giants) who were of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:1-2,4).
Who were these “sons of God” who took earthly wives and bore children? All ancient writings agree that the sons of God are angels. This includes the Septuagint (the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible that many of the apostles used), even the books of Jude and Second Peter in the Bible agree. Every one of them interpret “the sons of God” as angels.
Proof in the Book of Job
There are some secular scholars who say that Job was a mythical figure and not an actual human, thus relegating the entire book of Job as fiction. However, the Bible tells us that Job was a real person.
The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, and he stood up and spoke on behalf of the Lord: “‘Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness,’ says the Lord God” (Ezekiel 14:14). God is speaking and says, “these three men,” so they are not fictional characters, but real people: “Noah, Daniel, and Job.” This lets us know that Job was a real person, which further verifies that what happened in the book of Job was real, not fictional.
The book of Job came from the writing section of the Hebrew Bible, the Tenach, and it’s the first of the poetic books in our Bible. Scholars generally agree that the book of Job was written somewhere between the 4th and 7th century BC and that may or may not be correct. However, there is one thing we do know. In the entire 42 chapters of Job, the Law (the 10 written commandments and the 603 oral commandments that were given to Moses on Mount Sinai) is not mentioned even once. The book of Job most likely pre-dates the Law, which was given approximately 3,500 years ago. So, the following events in the book of Job are ancient events:
To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:6-7)
This passage in Job tells us the sons of God (the angels) were present at creation. They existed before the earth; they existed before the Garden of Eden. Ezekiel 28:13 says they were created, but they were created eons of time before man. Psalm 8 tells us they were watching as God created man. One of the angels asked God, “Why are people so important to you? Why do you even think about them? Why do you care so much about humans? Why do you even notice them?” (Psalm 8:4 ERV). It’s almost like the angel was asking, “Aren’t I enough?” Mankind was created to worship God and to fellowship with God for all eternity.
Another passage in the Bible describes the Lord’s interaction with the sons of God. Job 1:6 says, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.”
Keep in mind that when Satan was in heaven, his name was Lucifer. He was called Lucifer in the Bible, but when he was cast out, he became the adversary. The word satan means adversary—the one who comes against. From that point on he was called Satan, or the devil, the great dragon, the serpent of old.
So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him (Revelation 12:9).
Evidently the angels had to present themselves in submission to the Lord. So when the sons of God went to present themselves before the Lord, Satan went with them. He had obviously already been cast out of heaven; otherwise, he would have been called Lucifer. Therefore, this presentation before the Lord did not take place in God’s heaven.
The ancient book of Job clearly states that the sons of God are angels.
The Sethite View of the Sons of God
Historically, the oldest interpretation and view is that the sons of God were angels like we have discussed. Some of those angels had sexual relations with human women, which produced an offspring of giants called the Nephilim. This was the accepted teaching during the time of Jesus and in the first century. It was supported by such people as the historian Flavius Josephus, and Eusebius (one of the early church leaders). It’s also interesting that Justin Martyr, Origen, Irenaeus, and Clement of Alexandria, who were highly esteemed authors of their day, also held to the belief that the sons of God were angels.
All the apostles and the writers at the time of the apostles taught that “sons of God” were angels. It wasn’t until centuries after Jesus that a new view was brought into existence. This is known as the Sethite view. This position says the sons of God were simply male offspring from the lineage of Seth. The wives they took (daughters of men) were simply women descendants of Cain. (Seth and Cain were sons of Adam and Eve.)
The first instance of this view can be traced to a Greek philosopher named Celsus. He stated that the sons of Seth were righteous and the daughters of Cain were evil. However, if you trace the genealogy in the Bible, you will find righteousness and unrighteousness in both family trees.
Early church leaders (Augustus of Hippo and Origen), as well as letters that were attributed to Clement, easily disproved the Sethite view simply by a basic scholarly review.
The Sethite view means that for some unexplainable reason, the human sons of Seth and the human daughters of Cain produced children with defective DNA that were the Nephilim (giants). This defies logic and would be genetically impossible.
It is apparent that the sons of God were angelic beings who descended on Mount Hermon and made a determined and willful decision to bear children by these earthly women. While it may be difficult to understand the physical union of an angel and a human and even more difficult to explain how this could happen, we must not ignore what the Bible says: The sons of God took wives and bore children. And all the scriptural references to the sons of God clearly show they were angels (Job 1:6, Job 2:1, and Job 38:7).
New Testament Sons of God Are Different
Keep in mind that the Old Testament is a Hebrew text, and the New Testament is basically a Greek text. The New Testament rendering of sons of God compared to the Old Testament rendering does not correlate. The New Testament rendering of sons of God is teknon Theos and ascribes what born-again believers become as well as their status in the kingdom to come. These should not be confused with the angelic term of the Old Testament. The sons of God of the Old Testament (angels) are to minister for the sons of God (born-again believers) of the New Testament (Hebrews 1:14).
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26).
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God…. (1 John 3:1 King James Version)
Simply put, the reference to the sons of God in the Old Testament are angels and reference to the sons of God in the New Testament are born-again believers who are a part of the body of Christ, the church.
Angels Who Sinned
There are two groups of angels who sinned. The first group are the angels who followed Lucifer in his rebellion before the creation of man. They were cast to the earth and have already been judged. The Bible tells us that hell was created specifically for the purpose of containing Satan and his angels for all eternity (Matthew 25:41). God has judged them, sentenced them, and determined their punishment.
Obviously, these are not the angels that will be judged by the church (1 Corinthians 6:3). How do we know this? Because the angels who fell with Lucifer have already been judged. The method and time of their execution has already been determined by God. So if the fallen angels are truly incarcerated on earth, why do they cause so much havoc in the lives of mankind?
A comparison could be a convicted murderer is placed in an area called death row in the prison. He has been sentenced to death by the judge, but there is time between sentencing and the execution of his punishment.
The angels that fell with Lucifer are now confined to earth and the church has been given full authority over them. We could say the church is the guard in the prison, so if we fail to use our authority, the prisoners have free rein of the prison.
I promise you God in heaven will allow whatever you allow on earth, but God will not allow anything you don’t allow (Matthew 18:18 CEV).
Once again, their judgment has been pronounced and is recorded in the Bible. The method of execution has been determined and at the designated time will be carried out. Mankind gave up their authority over the devil when Adam sinned, but Jesus regained that authority for born-again believers.
The angels who continued in their God-ordained purpose (proper domain) and who stayed faithful under the leadership of God (Gabriel, Michael, etc.) will have no need of judgment. They have committed no sin.
The second group of angels who sinned are the 200 “Watchers” that were assigned to watch over humanity before Noah’s flood. These are the sons of God of Genesis 6 who left their proper domain, descended on Mount Hermon, and made a pact to take earthly women as their wives and commit fornication (Genesis 6:1-2). These angels have been imprisoned in chains in Tartarus and reserved for judgment. Obviously, these fallen angels (sons of God) have not yet been judged and are most likely the angels that the Bible says the church will judge.
For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly (1 Peter 2:4-5).
Do you not know that we shall judge angels? (1 Corinthians 6:3).
During the early days of mankind outside the Garden, this group of angels was referred to as ben elohim or the sons of God.
Their offspring was the Nephilim, which in Hebrew simply means fallen ones. They were the giants of ancient times.
The Overseers of Humanity
Watchers are angels who are assigned to watch over humanity. Even though 200 of the watchers who were assigned to watch over humanity sinned, we must not forget there was an innumerable number of other angels who remained loyal to God. The archangel Michael and countless other angels
retained their proper place in God’s kingdom and continue to this day to protect, deliver, and be subject to the word of the King of the kingdom of God. Scripturally we know that watchers continued, and the book of Daniel refers to them:
And inasmuch as the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying... (Daniel 4:23)
Can Angels Have Children?
An extremely strong controversial subject among theologians is this question: Can angels procreate and have children? There has been great debate about whether the angels that sinned in chapter 6 of Genesis actually had sexual relations with earthly women or not.
Many would say that is impossible, but we need to look at what the Bible shows us. Yes, we know that angels can take on many forms and one of them is to appear human. For example, the two angels who spoke to the disciples at the ascension of Jesus had the appearance of men (Acts 1:10-11). Also, Abraham gave hospitality to the men who approached him without realizing that they were angels until later (Genesis 18).
The very fact that the Bible says they took them as wives and bore children to them would indicate an intimate relationship. In fact, some versions of the Bible even translate this verse as “the sons of God had intercourse with the daughters of human beings” (Genesis 6:4 New American Bible Revised Edition). The Bible tells us that the offspring born to them were the Nephilim (Genesis 6:4 ESV). These were the giants of old.
There are many thoughts regarding this, but we must remember that the Bible is true and contains truth. We may wonder “how,” but regardless of how, the Bible truth remains— they did, and the result was children (Nephilim) who were born as giants, the mighty men of renown.
Contaminating the DNA of Mankind
What was the result of this incursion of angels into the reproduction plan of God for man? While the Watchers were simply consumed by the beauty of the women and lusted after them, it resulted in the distortion of human DNA. Satan, who possibly stood silently by while this was happening, could have seen it as an opportunity to destroy the seed of man. Could it be that once the sin was committed, Satan sought to amplify the perversion and ultimately pervert the Seed (Jesus) from being the perfect sacrifice? Obviously, Satan would not pass up this opportunity.
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel (Genesis 3:15).
If the seed that contains the genetic code (DNA) of man became contaminated, then there could not be a perfect sacrifice. Because any sacrifice to God had to be perfect, Satan saw this contamination caused by the sin of the Watchers as an opportunity to pollute the entire lineage of man on earth, thus preventing the Seed of the woman from bringing about his destruction.
…For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins (Hebrews 9:14 NLT).
The Nephilim seed carried within it contaminated, distorted, and imperfect DNA. Within the sperm and the egg are the hands and feet, glands, organs, brain, nervous system, and every detail of the offspring. DNA makes man what he is, and the contamination caused the offspring to be giants— distorted man. In the same way a virus can spread through a civilization, so could the perverted genetics that resulted in the giants. Over time, all of mankind would become infected.
By contaminating the DNA of all mankind, there would be no one left who was not contaminated and that would prevent the birth of the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God. Because the blood and body of the Lamb had to be without spot or blemish, Satan thought he could prevent his own destruction that was prophesied in the Garden of Eden.
You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God a bull or sheep which has any blemish or defect, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 17:1).
Once the infection got into the genetic code, every descendant would be affected. But God found a man who was righteous, and his name was Noah. Noah was morally and genetically clean (no hybrid DNA) through all his generations before him. The genetic infection had to be stopped. Eliminated. Wiped out. That was one of the reasons for Noah’s flood.
With the flood, all hybrid DNA was eliminated from the earth and only Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives remained for the repopulation of the earth.
Punishment of the Watchers
The punishment of the Watchers was different than the punishment of the angels who rebelled and fell with Lucifer. Because the Watchers did not keep their proper domain, and because their sin was so perverted and heinous, they were imprisoned in Tartarus (an area below Hades) until the great day of judgment.
And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day (Jude 1:6).
Second Peter 2:4-5 says, “...God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly.”
Because these angels left their assigned duty, they were cast down into hell. The word hell there in the Greek text is tartarus. This is the only place in the Bible this word is used. The concept comes from Homer’s epic writings, The Iliad and The Odyssey. The deepest part of Hades was Tartarus. Tartarus is defined as a place of torment as far below the earth as heaven is above the earth. These angels didn’t just get confined to a regular prison, but to maximum security, and they were committed to chains in pits of darkness reserved for judgment.
According to the Bible, the final judgment will take place at the end of the millennium. From that point on, there will be no more death and all evil will be banished from earth and heaven. This is most likely when the judgment of the Watchers will take place and the church will most likely be the judge.
